** 1/2 Anybody Want a Slice of Gyaos?

The Gamera series has gotten to a point where they market it exclusively to kids. This movie is so kid oriented that the earth isn’t really even threatened. Ironically, it’s also one of the bloodiest Gamera movies.

A couple of little boys find a spaceship near their house. They go inside, and the ship goes into space. They are about to get hit by asteroids, but Gamera comes to the rescue. The ship speeds off, and Gamera can’t keep up. The spaceship goes to a planet called Terra, on the opposite side of the sun. The boys witness Guiron, the "watch dog" of a once thriving city, hack up a space Gyaos. They then meet the last two survivors of the planet, two woman who explain to them that the people there tried to control nature and then was destroyed by the monsters they created (Sound familiar? Common plot isn’t it, but this is one of the first to use it.). They then try to eat the boy’s brains. Gamera comes to the rescue again, but is beat up by Guiron. He heals up underwater while the boys are being chased by spacewoman that want their brains (something about it makes them learn information about earth, which is where they are headed because their planet is freezing.). Guiron inadvertently destroys the space ship, "killing" one of the spacewoman inside. The kids somehow manage to shoot off a couple of rockets. One kills the last spacewoman, the other is caught by a healed up Gamera who jabs it into Guiron’s head, and lights it. Boom! Gamera fixes the ship and brings the boys home.

This is the first Gamera movie I watched. It was the only one I can find at local video rental places. First off all, this movie is just plain weird. The planet Terra looks like Star Trek or Monster 0, but is a lot weirder. The plot is good, it flows right; however, it to is weird. It is also very gory for a kid movie. There odd scene where a space Gyaos shoot a laser at Guiron, which is deflected by Guiron and lobs off Gyaos’s leg! Then, Guiron chops off it’s wings, decapitates it, and then proceeds to slice it like bologna. They whole scene looks more like something out of Tom & Jerry then from a slasher movie, but it is still weird and rather sick, especially since Guiron is laughing while doing it.

As odd as the movie is, it still flows right and is a lot of fun. The movie just seems to be pieced together well (except for the part where Guiron’s blown-off head magically reappears). The main problem, however, is the special effects. It wins the "string mania" award for having more parts using stings that are easily seen that I watched (Gamera, Guiron, Gyaos all "fly", Guiron’s star things, swimming, space ships, rockets, flying body parts). The sets used may look well thought out, but still look fake. Also, the rear projection isn’t very good. The movie looks cheap, and probably was.

The movie is very good but has a lot of bad attributes. It still is worth seeing because it has a lot of fun stuff in it. The special effects are cheap, the main reason why I didn’t rate it very high. However, anybody liking cheap old silly odd movies will love this one. Personally, I don’t have a choice. The local video rental place only has this one, even though it is a part of a set of five. Classic Gamera is silly, fun, kid-oriented, and bloody. This one has all that in exaggerated form.

Good plot.

Some people like lame special effects.

It’s fun!

Flows good.

So weird and silly that it’s fun to watch.

Can't forget about that goofy police officer guy (dubbed "Cornjob").

Newcomers can see stock footage of previous battles.

"String Mania" award.

A little sick and twisted for a kid movie.

Painfully weird.

Come on, was that really necessary!?

Adults might not like a kid movie (especially if it says "just for kids" on the video cover.)

Credits